At least 28 Huthi insurgents and 12 Yemeni soldiers were killed yesterday in the southern province of Shabwa as government forces pushed to capture a rebel enclave.
Military officials said, the fighting flared when forces loyal to President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi attacked rebels in Bayhan district, on the border between Shabwa and Marib provinces.
Bayhan is the only part of Shabwa province still controlled by the Iran-backed rebels after government forces supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition last year expelled them from five southern provinces.
The Yemen conflict has killed some 7,000 people since the Saudi-led intervention in March 2015, according to the United Nations.